The British Magazine

What does a magazine's look and feel say about it? Sometimes more than its written content. Starting with the advent of two periodicals--Punch in 1841 and the Illustrated London News a year later--this groundbreaking study investigates the design history of British magazines over the past 170 years, right up to thebeginnings of digital distribution. This pioneering survey of a still-developing story encompasses graphic design, typography, photography, and innovative print technology, and explores why magazines have looked how they do and how they have changed over time. The wealth of superb illustrations is drawn from the V&A'sNational Art Library's unparalleled archive of periodicals.

Table of Contents: Introduction; Author, Signature, Ascription Index; Index of Titles for Prose Articles; Subject and Source Index; Works Cited.

Encompassing a broad definition of the topic, this Companion provides a survey of the literary magazine from its earliest days to the contemporary moment. It offers a comprehensive theorization of the literary magazine in the wake of developments in periodical studies in the last decade, bringing together a wide variety of approaches and concerns. With its distinctive chronological and geographical scope, this volume sheds new light on the possibilities and difficulties of the concept of the literary magazine, balancing a comprehensive overview of key themes and examples with greater attention to new approaches to magazine research. Divided into three main sections, this book offers: • Theory—it investigates definitions and limits of what a literary magazine is and what it does. • History and regionalism—a very broad historical and geographic sweep draws new connections and offers expanded definitions. • Case studies—these range from key modernist little magazines and the popular middlebrow to pulp fiction, comics, and digital ventures, widening the ambit of the literary magazine. The Routledge Companion to the British and North American Literary Magazine offers new and unforeseen cross-connections across the long history of literary periodicals, highlighting the ways in which it allows us to trace such ideas as the “literary” as well as notions of what magazines do in a culture.